FAIRHOPE, Ala. — For nearly a decade, the city of Fairhope has sold food and alcohol at the municipal golf course, but that changed this week.

The City Council voted unanimously Monday to award a food and beverage concession lease agreement for Quail Creek Golf Course to A Taste of New Orleans, which operates a restaurant in Fairhope.

“We got the letter in January from (the city attorney) that said we should not be in the retail food and beverage business,” Council President Debbie Quinn said Tuesday. “We decided that with the golf course being closed for repairs this summer, that this would be a good time to change that.”

The golf course has been closed the past few months while it has undergone significant renovations to its facilities, including repairs of its greens, and is scheduled to reopen in October.

Quinn said that until about 10 years ago, concessions were awarded to various businesses to provide food and beverage services at the golf course. At that time, during former mayor James P. Nix’s administration, the city-owned golf course began providing those services itself.

Quinn said one of the reasons the city began providing these retail services was because it had been difficult to find local businesses willing to handle the concession.

A Taste of New Orleans was the only business that submitted a bid.

The city will receive 3 percent of gross sales from A Taste of New Orleans for the first year and 5 percent thereafter, during the four-year term of the lease, according to city records.

In other business, the council:

• Approved a 25 percent discounted rate for municipal employees at the new Fairhope Recreation Center, which can be paid on a monthly basis.

The “special discounted city employee membership rates” plan was presented to the council by Recreation Director Eddie Boyett and Recreation Center Director Liz Chandler.

During an August council meeting, Councilman Lonnie Mixon presented a plan to allow police department employees and members of the local volunteer fire department, who are not city employees, to receive free memberships to the recreation center.

A petition was submitted to the council on Aug. 20 by approximately 50 city employees, according to Quinn, objecting to that plan.

“As employees of the city of Fairhope, we feel we should have all have the same benefits,” the petition stated. “We would like to have the ability to better our health by having equal rights to the city recreation center.”

At that Aug. 24 meting, the council delayed consideration of offering free memberships to police and fire personnel until Monday’s meeting, to allow time for city staff to research the issue and the recreation board to consider the proposal.

• Appointed Walt Bolton to the city’s Tree Committee.

• Appointed Rod Platt and Joe McEnerney to the Fairhope Airport Authority.